January 11, 1999
UK Report Highlights Problems with OPs
Illness from chronic organophosphate (OP) exposure is genuine
and sometimes very serious according to a report recently
released in the United Kingdom. The report,* written by a
joint working party of the Royal College of Physicians and
the Royal College of Psychiatrists, heard evidence from
sheep-dip exposure victims and concluded that symptoms they
experience are unquestionably real. Symptoms range from
excessive tiredness, headaches, limb pains, disturbed sleep,
poor concentration and mood changes to thoughts of suicide.
Witnesses at the hearings also stated that they had not been
properly looked after by hospitals and doctors. The report
calls for doctors to take the problem seriously and treat
sufferers sympathetically.
Concerns regarding the safety of organophosphate sheep dips
have risen in the UK over the past few years as more evidence
of health impacts has come to light. For example, a 1995
epidemiological study on farmers by the UK Institute of
Occupational Medicine showed that chronic exposure to
organophosphate-based sheep dip pesticides appeared to be
associated with subtle changes in the nervous system.
Over 100,000 sheep farmers in the UK use an estimated 200
million liters of sheep dip each year. Approximately 50% of
the dips sold have active ingredients that are
organophosphate insecticides such as diazinon,
chlorfenvinphos and propetamphos. Some farmers stated that
even after following recommended precautions such as wearing
protective clothing, they often became ill after dipping.
The UK Department of Health's Chief Medical Officer has
responded positively to the report, with an initiative to
involve the Royal College of General Practitioners in
implementing the report's recommendations. The report's
authors propose that general practitioners working with the
National Poisons Information Service remain the primary
source of treatment for those affected.
The OP Information Network (OPIN), a UK non-governmental
organization in touch with almost 700 sufferers, stated that
they are unhappy with the report because it did not look at
how the symptoms are caused, nor does it address the problem
that many general practitioners do not know the symptoms of
chronic OP poisoning. OPIN is also concerned that the working
party did not look at reported cases of problems among
children of farming families.
In a report released in April 1998,** the Agriculture
Committee of the Northern Ireland Forum for Political
Dialogue stated that there is a connection between exposure
victims' illness and OP compounds and that there should be a
moratorium on their use pending an immediate governmental
review. The report criticized the UK government for dragging
its feet over the various problems posed by the use of OPs
and concluded that the information about OP sheep-dips given
to farmers is inadequate.
Organic sheep farmers have developed husbandry strategies to
minimize or do without the use of chemicals to control sheep
scab and other problems. In addition to chemical-free
management practices, organic sheep farmers in the UK are
permitted to use limited amounts of the synthetic pyrethroid
flumethrin to control sheep scab. Synthetic pyrethroids are
believed to be less toxic; however, these chemicals have been
implicated in damage to wildlife and the environment, and on
some farms sheep-scab mite has become resistant.
* "Organophosphate Sheep Dip: Clinical Aspects of Long-term
Low-dose Exposure," Report of a joint working party of the
Royal College of Physicians and Royal College of
Psychiatrists, November 1998/CR67.
** "Organophosphate Insecticides -- Their Use by the Farming
Community," a report prepared by Standing Committee D
(Agriculture and Fisheries Issues) of the Northern Ireland
Forum for Political Dialogue, 1998.
Sources: The Pesticides News, December 1998, June 1997 and
June 1995; "Doctors Warn on Sheep Dip," Alex Kirby, BBC,
November 11, 1998.
Contact: The Pesticides Trust, Eurolink Centre, 49 Effra
Road, London SW2 1BZ UK; phone (44-171) 274 8895; fax (44-
171) 274 9084; email pesttrust@gn.apc.org.
======================================================
Pesticide Action Network North America (PANNA)
49 Powell St., Suite 500, San Francisco, California 94102
Phone (415) 981-1771
Fax (415) 981-1991
Email: panna@panna.org
web site www.panna.org/panna/
To subscribe to PANUPS, email to majordomo@igc.org with the
following text on one line: subscribe panups
To unsubscribe send the following: unsubscribe panups
======================================================
To Unsubscribe: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"unsubscribe sanet-mg".
To Subscribe to Digest: Email majordomo@ces.ncsu.edu with the command
"subscribe sanet-mg-digest".
All messages to sanet-mg are archived at:
http://www.sare.org/htdocs/hypermail